“That’s all very well to talk about asking any one, when no one speaks a syllable of English.”
“I will do the talking for you.”
“Of course you will; you have done it all thus far.”
“I don’t mean to say that you must really double the north pole, or that it is just seventy miles by land; but it’s a long distance,” Ole explained.
“No matter how far it is; we will go,” added the pliant coxswain. “I’m willing to do whatever the fellows wish. It shall not be said that I was mulish.”
“But if it is seventy miles, or anything like it, we couldn’t get to Christiansand before the ship left.”
“That’s just what I was thinking,” answered Sanford, with a puzzled expression on his face. “Ole says it is a long way, and I have been told that these Norwegians are very honest, and will not lie; so I suppose he has told the truth.”
It was barely possible that the waif had learned to lie in England, where he had acquired his English.
“I suppose we must give up the idea of going in a boat, or going by land. We can only wait till the steamer comes,” continued Burchmore, putting on a very long face.
“We can’t stand that,” protested Wilde.